Squeaker
by mageofpie
Summary: By this point, Yomi just wants Tomo to give her a break about her weight for once. Sakaki just wants to help. Set during the second year culture fest. Sakaki/Yomi pair cause my poor rarepair shipper heart can't take the lack of fic for these two.


**This started out as a dumb oneshot for my rarepair of Sakaki/Yomi but I ended up writing this shit storm of headcanons and self indulgent fluff and yeah, here ya go, Azumanga Daioh fandom that is quite literally dead but I'm still obsessed with anyway.**

**#yolo**

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Squeaker

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It was at times like these where Yomi would sit down and question certain things about her life. Where she was going. What kind of person she wanted to be.

Why the _fuck _she was still friends with Tomo.

For what felt like the millionth time since actually meeting and befriending the resident "wildcat" when they were but children, Yomi sat with her arms and legs crossed, silently fuming, fearing that if her eyebrows were to scrunch any further they would be permanently stuck in a scowl for the rest of her life.

"_Oh my god, Yomi!_" she had said.

"_The uniform's pretty tight on you!_" she had said.

"_You can see you your back fat rolls in it!_" she had said, before following it up with that obnoxious hyena noise she calls a laugh.

People had often said that the two girls complimented each other's personality, the whole opposites attract reasoning but if she was being honest with herself, Yomi had never heard a more untrue statement in all of her 17 years of living. In fact, is she was being _really _honest with herself, and believe me she was, Yomi thought that her and Tomo's relationship was about as steady as a shopping cart being dragged down a rocky hillside by a tow truck.

That is to say, not steady by any stretch of the imagination.

People from other classes wandered by idly as Yomi sat outside her classroom on her own, silently stewing in her anger. Tomo's remark ran through her head like a tormenting refrain, the bespectacled girl becoming tenser each time. She ripped the 'dad' cap off her head in frustration and tossed it to the plastic chair beside her, letting her head drop into her hands with a sigh.

Perhaps, she thought, perhaps she was over thinking it. It's not like she hadn't heard any of the shit Tomo spouted before. The jokes, the cackling, the pointing…

… and yet…

She looked down at herself in the rather snug uniform issued to her by a frantic Chiyo to change into before the 11-year-old started squeaking at Osaka to stop messing about with the stuffed animals.

She frowned and wondered if that extra helping of curry last night was really all that necessary. And maybe this pencil skirt didn't exactly flatter her.

Yomi poked her cheek.

And maybe this wasn't just puppy fat that she had convinced herself would fall off in a few years.

More students passed by, happily chattering and carrying boxes of supplies for their own class culture fest idea. The frown on her face hardened as the bespectacled girl's inner monologue spat out insult after insult to herself, further driving her bad mood. With a frustrated sigh though the nose, Yomi dropped her head forward and into her hands again, not realising she had raised it up.

"Yomi?"

Yomi let out an undignified squeak and nearly fell of her chair, wild eyes searching for the person said noise came from.

"Oh. Oh, Sakaki… it's just you…"

She hoped she didn't look half as idiotic as she felt and sounded. Despite knowing her taller classmate wasn't as intimidating as she looked she still made Yomi slightly nervous, but she didn't know why exactly. The brunette adjusted her glasses and uniform, clearing her throat in the process.

She tried to keep her expression neutral as she gazed up into her friend's intense, cobalt eyes but couldn't help her lips twitching in a small smile at the sight of such an intimidating figure donning a NekoKoneko doll on her head.

"Are you alright?" Sakaki coaxed, sitting down next to Yomi and picking up her discarded hat. Yomi blushed slightly and looked at the floor. She would never get over how nice the tall girl always was to her despite her constant bad mood.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, Sakaki…" she stuttered out, wincing when she glanced out of the corner of her eye and saw Sakaki frowning. It was so damn obvious she was lying, "Okay, Tomo was just getting on my nerves again, it's nothing new." The last part was said with the slightest hint of venom but Yomi quickly backpedaled upon noticing that Sakaki had leaned away from her and was sheepishly looking at her lap.

"Oh man, I'm sorry, Sakaki. She just… ugh, she makes me so mad sometimes."

"I know."

Yomi watched as Sakaki fiddled with the ears of her cap and raised an eyebrow, sighing. She held a hand out to Sakaki and wiggled her fingers in a coaxing manner, hoping the intended message was got across. The taller girl looked between her hand, its owner, and the hat in her own hands several times before gently placing it in Yomi's open palm who then yanked it back onto her head.

The look of pride on Sakaki's face as the bespectacled girl wore her own creation almost made her feel better.

Almost.

She forced herself to at least half-smile back and looked back the floor, feeling herself close up again; arms crossed, legs crossed, furrowed brows. If she had looked up, Yomi would have noticed that Sakaki was giving her a contemplative look before she got up and muttered something that sounded like "Hang on…"

'_Great,_' came the self-deprecating thoughts almost immediately, '_Now you've gone and scared off another friend with your god damned emotions. Get a fucking grip, Yomi! Nobody cares about yo-!_'

*_SQUEAK_*

For the second time that day, Yomi nearly jumped out her skin at the sudden and unexpected noise and snapped her head up to glare at a… a… dog?

"Wha-?"

*_SQUEAK_*

From behind the dog head came familiarly long, black hair followed by cautious blue eyes. Yomi looked between Sakaki and the glassy, dead eyes of the stuffed dog.

"Sakaki, what are you-?"

*_SQUEAK_*

Yomi flapped her jaw a few times, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Possibly the most popular girl in the class, if not the school, was trying to cheer her up with a stuffed animal with a squeaker in it. The ridiculousness of the situation was almost enough to make Yomi smile by itself but her mouth decided to do some weird twitch thing that looked more like a grimace than an actual smile. Sakaki peered wearily out from behind the stuffed dog and glanced at the floor nervously, shuffling her feet.

"Are you…" Sakaki cleared her throat and lowered the animal slightly, "Are you… a little better?"

Yomi continued to stare at Sakaki, her mind still trying to catch up with the situation. The whole thing felt so surreal to her for some reason. With some hesitation, the brunette stood up and plucked the toy out of Sakaki's hands who flinched back and quickly wondered if this was a good idea. Yomi placed the toy on her seat and turned back to the taller girl.

"I'm n-not really good at, um, helping people feel better but, uh, I just-" Sakaki stuttered out something of an apology before being cut off by two arms wrapping around her waist and a head nuzzling into her neck.

Reacting quickly, Sakaki gently hugged the trembling Yomi back and rubbed her back soothingly. The shorter girl wasn't crying exactly, just breathing heavier than normal. Like she was trying to stop crying in the first place.

The corridor seemed a lot quieter than it had a few seconds ago with less people to see the obviously tender display of friendship being shared by the two normally stoic girls.

Yomi, well aware of their public location, tried her best to hold her emotions at bay by clinging to her classmate. They stayed like that for a moment or two, with Sakaki rubbing Yomi's back to try and calm her down and Yomi in turn, trying her best to keep her emotions in check.

Pulling away, the bespectacled girl sniffed and adjusted her glasses, "Thank you… Sakaki…"

The girl in question gave a small smile and nodded.

"But…" Yomi's voice sounded small, even to her own ears, "But… why did you…?"

Sakaki frowned slightly and furrowed her eyebrows, seemingly thinking about the answer before motioning for Yomi to sit back down. They both sat next to each other again, Yomi hugging the stuffed animal to her chest and Sakaki fiddling with her fingers with nervous energy.

"Well… I know it seems kind of odd to react now after all this time… I mean, all the time's Tomo has done something like this before, but…" She trailed off, seemingly embarrassed by her own negligence, "I suppose today was the day I finally plucked up the courage to do something about it…"

Yomi cocked her head slightly at the admission, "What do you mean? Do something about it?"

"Yeah, I, uh… when you left, I kind of scolded Tomo for saying what she did and how it wasn't nice for her to pick on something about someone they're obviously sensitive about…" Sakaki inhaled shakily and glanced up from gazing at her lap to Yomi's eyes before quickly looking back at her twiddling thumbs, "I really should have said something before now, but I have a hard time dealing with people in general so…"

Reaching across the gap between them, Yomi clasped one of her hands in Sakaki's causing the taller girl to flinch away slightly. Undeterred, Yomi grasped the other girl's hand harder and rubbed her thumb over the back of her hand and smiling slightly, "Thank you… I just… ugh-"

Yomi let go of Sakaki's hand and bit her lip, "I just wish Tomo didn't have anything about me to insult in the first place…" She subconsciously placed a hand over her stomach and grimaced.

Sakaki frowned and furrowed her eyebrows in return, "But you're beautiful…"

Yomi, slightly taken aback by the confession blinked a few times before letting out a hollow laugh, "No, I'm fat."

"Why can't you be both…?" The response was almost immediate which shocked the bespectacled girl since this was Sakaki she was talking to, but what was actually said shocked her more. Looking at the taller girl, who was cocking her head to the side like she was actually confused by Yomi's predicament, the latter simply gaped at her and flapped her jaw. She had honestly never thought about it like that.

Her whole life she had conditioned herself to think that looking anything outside of fashion magazines models was inexcusable so the thought that her extra weight could be seen as beautiful to other people? Especially since Tomo had pretty much killed whatever semblance of self-confidence Yomi had left a long time ago? The whole idea seemed so ridiculous to her.

But looking at Sakaki now, who was staring at her with nothing but honesty and compassion, Yomi could feel such doubts melt away.

Noticing that her companion wasn't up for talking just yet, Sakaki inhaled and prepared herself for what she was about to say. She turned in her seat to she was facing the window across from them and kept her eyes straight, not thinking she could look Yomi in the eyes while telling this story.

"You know… when I was younger I was bullied a lot… not for the same thing as you, but it made me feel awful for being who I was all the same. It took me a long time to realise that I wasn't the weird freak that everyone had told me I was, but to be honest I'm still not one hundred percent sure…" Sakaki took another breath and glanced to the side to see how Yomi was reacting. She couldn't tell. So she shook her head and started again, "If someone had told me way back then that I'm fine the way I am, I probably wouldn't have believed them either but it's nice to know someone's on your side…"

They both sat in silence for a while; Sakaki twiddling her thumbs nervously and Yomi trying to figure out what to say in response. In all honesty, she'd never heard Sakaki talk this much in the 2 years she'd known her and hearing her talk so freely about something that was obviously a sensitive subject to make Yomi feel better… well, it was a hard thing to swallow to say the least.

So, instead of ruining the moment with her big mouth, Yomi turned and faced the window as well, leaning against Sakaki's shoulder and sighing. She felt the taller girl tense up again before relaxing somewhat.

"Would it be forward of me to ask what you were bullied for in the first place?" Came Yomi's gentle enquiry, "You don't seem like the type of person who would be teased about anything."

Sakaki let out a dry chuckle, "Yeah, I guess…"

A beat.

"… You know, Osaka was half right in first year when she said there was an American among us."

Yomi cocked her head in confusion.

"I mean, my father's American and my mother's Japanese… Well, technically, my dad's Asian-American but…" Sakaki admitted while waving her hand in slight dismissal, "We lived in America until I was 13 when we moved here and I was home schooled until high school… but a lot can happen in 13 years, you know?"

Yomi blinked at the new information but continued listening, still trying to get over how much the normally silent girl was talking.

"Where I grew up… there wasn't a lot of racial diversity, you could say… a lot of white kids at school who'd never seen someone who looked like me before… so obviously, because I was different, I was picked on…"

Yomi could see where this story was going and felt her expression become grim. She linked her arm through Sakaki's who faltered and looked down at her. Yomi looked back.

"You don't have to carry on… I think I see where this is going."

Sakaki paused before nodding once and letting out a hum.

"I'm guessing it was a bit of a culture shock moving from America to here then? And people idolise you here now."

Sakaki nodded once, "Yeah… English is my first language but my mom taught me Japanese since I was able to talk so it's never been a problem switching languages… I still have trouble with kanji sometimes, though…" She concluded sheepishly. Yomi chuckled and squeezed their joined arms reassuringly.

"Don't worry, the fact that you can speak 2 languages fluently makes up for it." She joked which earned her a rare smile from the other schoolgirl.

They both smiled at each other for a moment, Yomi realising that she'd just had a heartfelt, genuine moment with one of her lesser talked to friends. Sakaki attempted to stand up and unlinked their arms, immediately disliking the loss of warmth that came with the action. She brushed her skirt off and adjusted the NekoKoneko on her head and offered a hand to the other girl.

"We should probably go back."

Yomi took the hand and hoisted herself up, "Yeah, Chiyo's probably having an aneurysm right now without us."

The both laughed, Sakaki's more of a giggle than anything.

Before they both entered the classroom, from which Chiyo's frantic orders could be heard from behind the screen door, Yomi grabbed Sakaki's arm on a whim and turned the girl round who obliged and gazed down at Yomi with a confused look.

"Hey, do you think… we could hang out sometime? Just the two of us? I think I'd like to get to know you better." Yomi asked, an awkward grin on her face.

Sakaki blinked before giving the bespectacled girl a grin and nodding once.

"Mmm. Sounds good…"

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**Wowzers, that was dumb but it makes me little shipper heart sing.**

**I wasn't even gonna publish this tbh but whatever, what's done is done.**

**Mage**


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